Even a generation ago, fundamental existential questions may have appeared as forever inaccessible metaphysical questions. How did the universe begin? How will it end? Are we alone? Are there universes? Remarkably, in the past decade or two and in some cases in the past year or so, it has become clear that all of these are accessible at least in principle, to experimentation and observation. In some cases we have come very close to answering them, or may do so within the next decade. These remarkable developments, relating to questions all of us have—whether we are scientists or not—prove that science fact trumps science fiction every day.